Januray 21: Health Care Reform News

By Kelley Luckstein

Electronic Health Records Probe Expands to Hospitals

A congressional inquiry into plans for spending billions of dollars in stimulus money on digital medical records is now questioning some of the nation’s most prestigious health care providers about possible safety flaws and other problems with the electronic systems.Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa)…has asked 31 hospitals and health systems across the country…to advise him of any problems with their computer systems and any “issues or concerns that have been raised by your health care providers” over the past two years…

The hospitals include [ see full list here] the prestigious Mayo Clinic and others among the country’s leading users and pioneers of digital records, such as Kaiser Permanente, a California-based health system with more than 8 million members.

The president’s first preference is to pass the sort of far-reaching health care legislation that lawmakers and the administration were negotiating before the Republican victory in Massachusetts upended everything.

Republican candidate rode to victory on a message more nuanced than flat-out resistance to universal health coverage: Massachusetts residents, he said, already had insurance and should not have to pay for it elsewhere.

A congressional inquiry into plans for spending billions of dollars in stimulus money on digital medical records is now questioning some of the nation's most prestigious health care providers [including Mayo Clinic] about possible safety flaws and other problems with the electronic systems.